I'm back in Interlaken after 5 days in Zell am See and the first time I've had internet since leaving a week ago.
The comp was a great experience despite having done completely shitty in it. I don't even know where I placed but I'm sure it's at the bottom. Really f*cking disappointing but I learned a lot AGAIN about competing.
Atypical for an APWC comp was the fact that we got to announce our program for all 4 runs. Here's what I announced and how I did:
Run 1: helico, helico/helico, helico/SAT
I actually nailed all 3 which was very surprising since it was only the 2nd flight after my accident; in fact, the helico-helico was my first try after I crashed trying it the week before. So, on all levels - physical, psychological, emotional - I did a great run but missed the platform. Good enough for 15th overall out of 35 pilots.
But here's when the wheels come off . . . .
Run 2: same program
I get the helico but miss the helico/helico, do a lackluster helico/SAT, and miss the raft. I now drop to 21st.
Run 3: same program
Not only did I miss each trick, but I lost so much altitude that I couldn't even do the last trick! In addition, when I got pulled up onto the boat, I felt something pop/tear on or near that left gluteal which felt tight all week. Did I mention I missed the platform completely? Not only did I have a crappy run, but I'm really hurting as well. As I'm dripping wet, I contemplate quitting the comp and going home. I just really hated being in that town at that moment. I've now dropped to 28th.
But after a good night of drinks, watching the premiere of "Champions Take Nothing", and hanging out with the other pilots in the campsite, I decide to finish what I started despite the pain.
Run 4: tumble - helico - helico/SAT
So I give up on the helico/helico and decide to do something easier with the tumble, but I didn't get it vertical and the exit wasn't clean so I got a low score for that. Fortunately, after the pendulum from the tumble exit I went right into the helico and nailed it. So, I looked forward to ending it w/a very difficult trick that I actually do well - helico/SAT - but I screwed it up w/a bad helico that lead to no SAT, so I got low points for that. And, oh yeah . . . . I missed the platform.
As I think about the week, here are the good points:
- I got to compete in an APWC event against almost all of the best acro pilots in the world
- Despite the low overall finish, I still get APWC points which will hopefully improve my ranking
- I made some new friends in the world acro community and my name is now recognized among the judges
- The experience sets me up for the worlds in 2010
Here's what I need to work on:
- Forget about the Rhythmic or Infinite until I can perfect the helico and all the combos. Not only is this the right way to learn, but it cannot hurt me for competitions. (In fact, SAT/helico was a trick in the compulsory round at this year's Vertigo. Currently, I can't do this trick.)
As a side note, there are a lot of younger acro pilots who can do the Infinite, but can't helico. In fact, some can't even do asymm spirals to pass a safety selection flight! This isn't right. If there are any aspiring acro pilots reading this, take my advice: don't learn this way! Believe me - you won't get the respect that you think you'll get from real acro pilots 'cause we'll just say, "Oh that's cool . . . . but can you helico? On both sides? You can't? Then why are you doing the Infinite?"
I used to think that if you wanted to finish top 5 in an APWC event, you had to do the Infinite. But after seeing Horatio Llorens win both Vertigo and Paranoia this year w/no infinite (in comps, he just tumbles and does the helico tricks perfect), I no longer believe this. While you definitely need to do some high-coefficient tricks, they need to be completely clean and as close as possible to what the judges want. Being radical and hard core neither garners respect nor points.
Because of this realization, I've decided to take a road trip with my new Japanese friend ('cause I get to speak nihongo w/her), Seiko, to Organya, Spain for 3 weeks train my ass off for Acroaria in mid-August. This is a legendary training spot of the SAT brothers, and the place where the best acro pilots have trained many times in their career. Called the "Magic Mountain", it's too hot and thermic to fly before 4, but after . . . . it's 4 -5 hours of smooth refills with a working altitude of 1000 meters. Even though it's over ground, this is what acro pilots dream of. In addition, the campsite has a swimming pool and free wifi, all for 5E a day!
Despite my injury, I'm so f*cking excited to go. Not only will I learn from all the great pilots who'll be there, but I know I'll be getting to higher levels in my acro flying.
See ya in Espana!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Off to Austria
Tomorrow morning I head to Zell am See for Paranoia Acrobatixx which will be my first Aerobatic Paragliding World Championship (APWC) event. (Vertigo should've been my first . . . . yeah, still pissed about that.)
After 3 straight days of rain, it's finally gonna be clear tomorrow so I hope to get out to Murren early and get some flights before facing the 6-hour drive. This is crucial since it'll be my first flight since the accident as I really didn't want the 1st run in Austria to be it!
Regarding the accident, I'm almost 100% except for some tightness in my left gluteal. After looking at my harness and jacket, and feeling where it hurts on my body, I clearly landed perfectly flat on my leftside, which obviously dissipated the impact energy evenly, making it the only way to avoid breaking anything (except my sunglasses).
Geezus. If it wasn't for hanging solely on my right carabiner as I fell, I'd be in a body cast for sure.
My FLX didn't go unscathed either; it suffered a tear which I quickly had the Swiss Ozone importer repair. He and his wife have a great business JUST selling Ozone wings and doing repairs. Amazing.
Every night in Interlaken, I come to the Funny Farm which is part of the Mattenhof Resort to use their free wifi and basically hang out since it's warm in here and not-so in my tent. If you didn't already know (I didn't before I got here two weeks ago), Interlaken is the extreme sports capital of Europe where a tourist can try paragliding, hanggliding, canyoning, river rafting, skydiving, and zorbing in the summer. The town is just full of American college students who are traveling throughout Europe in an urban backpacking trip.
It's pretty scary.
But the money you can make off these kids is phenomenal. One of my friends here, Sebastian, has been doing PG tandems since last summer. If he hustles and averages 4 tandems/day (VERY conservative number) during this time (3 -4 month period), he can take the rest of the year off and travel. Can you imagine?
While you won't get rich and receive any stock options, it sure sounds better than a cube job, eh? But before any of you T3s get any funny ideas and quit your day job, go get at least 2500 tandem flights, and maybe - just maybe! - your T3 will be transferable. But I seriously doubt it. The requirements to get a coveted Swiss tandem license make the USHPA ones look like 3rd grade.
That said, there are some major business opportunities in Interlaken if you can create something for them to do when it rains . . . . or anything involving a certain green plant.
See you guys next when I'm in Austria!
After 3 straight days of rain, it's finally gonna be clear tomorrow so I hope to get out to Murren early and get some flights before facing the 6-hour drive. This is crucial since it'll be my first flight since the accident as I really didn't want the 1st run in Austria to be it!
Regarding the accident, I'm almost 100% except for some tightness in my left gluteal. After looking at my harness and jacket, and feeling where it hurts on my body, I clearly landed perfectly flat on my leftside, which obviously dissipated the impact energy evenly, making it the only way to avoid breaking anything (except my sunglasses).
Geezus. If it wasn't for hanging solely on my right carabiner as I fell, I'd be in a body cast for sure.
My FLX didn't go unscathed either; it suffered a tear which I quickly had the Swiss Ozone importer repair. He and his wife have a great business JUST selling Ozone wings and doing repairs. Amazing.
Every night in Interlaken, I come to the Funny Farm which is part of the Mattenhof Resort to use their free wifi and basically hang out since it's warm in here and not-so in my tent. If you didn't already know (I didn't before I got here two weeks ago), Interlaken is the extreme sports capital of Europe where a tourist can try paragliding, hanggliding, canyoning, river rafting, skydiving, and zorbing in the summer. The town is just full of American college students who are traveling throughout Europe in an urban backpacking trip.
It's pretty scary.
But the money you can make off these kids is phenomenal. One of my friends here, Sebastian, has been doing PG tandems since last summer. If he hustles and averages 4 tandems/day (VERY conservative number) during this time (3 -4 month period), he can take the rest of the year off and travel. Can you imagine?
While you won't get rich and receive any stock options, it sure sounds better than a cube job, eh? But before any of you T3s get any funny ideas and quit your day job, go get at least 2500 tandem flights, and maybe - just maybe! - your T3 will be transferable. But I seriously doubt it. The requirements to get a coveted Swiss tandem license make the USHPA ones look like 3rd grade.
That said, there are some major business opportunities in Interlaken if you can create something for them to do when it rains . . . . or anything involving a certain green plant.
See you guys next when I'm in Austria!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
I'm a Luckbox*
*Luckbox - "A person so full of luck in poker that it is disgusting and ridiculous. There is surely some skill involved, but a luckbox will demonstrate more luck mixed in with that skill than any other player.....ever......in the history of the world......even more than Chris Moneymaker, which is just absurd."
- Urban dictionary
The weather was gorgeous today so I got to Murren early to start training before Paranoia Acrobatixx starts in a week. I was really motivated to get a lot of flights so I hustled from the beginning to do 2 flights an hour. (Usually, you'll get a flight an hour as the gondola runs at :25 after the hour, then 30 min. later at :55.) Since the flight lasts about 3 - 4 minutes (like a tow), it's possible to do this.
After practicing some real basic stuff like asym sprials and dynamic full stalls, I decided to practice the run I'd do at Paranoia: tumble, helico - helico, helico - SAT. At this comp, we won't get much height - maybe 500 meters? - so we'll only have room for 3 tricks.
On my fifth flight, I go for a high tumble. Because my entry was either too slow or I didn't pull enough, the wing went limp after the second turn, causing the left side to collapse into the lines causing a line over/bowtie. Having seen this before over the lake, I knew it wasn't correctable so I decided to throw my reserve before things got ugly. The reserve opened just fine as I began to pull the wing in. Although I landed hard, thanks to the PLF, I landed perfectly, dissipating the energy across my body, in one of the grass fields without a scratch. I folded up my wing, stuffed the reserve in the harness, and walked back to my car. Because I was trying out my friend's harness, I simply put his in the car, grabbed my own harness and was on the next gondola 30 minutes later. For me, it's important to get right back "on the horse" so I don't experience "paralysis by analysis". It happened, I learned from it, so move on . . . .
Skip forward 2 flights.
The flight after the reserve toss was pretty eventful, so on the next one, I was gonna try my routine again, sans the tumble. So, it was just gonna be the helico - helico (twister)and helico - SAT. Although I just started nailing the twister earlier in the week, I wanted to get it cleaner and also incorporate it into an actual run.
I start my run around 700 meters or so. The left helico was perfect - going fast, no oscillations, and completely open. I slowed the right side down after 6 - 7 rotations, and held the wing in parachutal, preparing it to go the other way. However, I did this for too long which will make the wing want to re-start VERY hard. (On an acro glider, if you aren't ready for it, this can be very bad.)
Because I gave the wing too much "re-start power", the left side spun super-fast when I let it fly - so much so that my body couldn't follow thereby causing - in 2 seconds! - 2 riser twists. Now this isn't so bad as I'd simply take my hands out of the toggles and get control of the glider using the rear risers (the PG adage "steer then clear" is good to remember) before the wing starts to wind up in a deep spiral dive. But as soon as I started to do this, the wing suddenly shot out in front of me (in a 2nd re-start?) causing a severe collapse on the left wing tip - or should I say the ENTIRE left side! - so severe that as my falling body passed by the wing, I got caught in the lines.
"Oh Shit!" (OS!) #1: I'm now partially covered in lines, leaned entirely on the left side, and starting to spin uncontrollably. (I don't think I was spiraling because the wing was on top of me the whole time - it started spinning to the left faster and faster.)
OS! moment #2: I go for my right reserve but realize that there are lines covering it. Somehow I get the reserve out of the container but it doesn't fully come out. My guess is because of the lines. I never saw it deploy.
OS! moment #3: Not seeing any good results from OS moment #2, I go for my 2nd reserve which is now underneath me. Because that side isn't covered in lines, I'm able to pull the reserve and it comes out of the container, but it doesn't deploy right away! Somehow, even though I'm spinning uncontrollably, I look up and the see the d-bag with my last reserve floating above me. As any reasonable person would do after having experienced 3 consecutive OS moments, I tugged the F*CK out of the lines to get the reserve out and - VOILA! - it began to open up.
WHEW moment #1: The reserve starts to inflate and I'm elated . . . . but this lasts for 2 seconds.
OS! moment #4: Because I'm spinning so fast and didn't have enough time to pull the wing in, it starts wrapping around the reserve which is just starting to inflate.
OS! moment #5: My last reserve can't inflate. Realizing this, I do my best to somehow unwrap the reserve from the wing. While obviously a desperate measure, I needed to do something.
OS! moment #6: Desperate measure doesn't work. I'm now spinning to the ground with only the hope that whatever part of the wing and whatever part of the reserve that are opened will somehow slow my descent.
OS! moment #7: I'm somehow able to make out that I'll be falling close to a house and hoping that the valley wind will somehow push me away from it.
After seven (7) OS! moments, I hit the ground, unsure of whether or not I PLF'ed, thankful that I missed the house . . . . by 3 meters. As I write this, I have no idea how I landed. All I know is that I landed "perfectly", as you'll soon read.
From all this, after having been checked out by a doctor for any back or spinal injury, I walk away with only a concussion, a bruised left eye, some sore back muscles, and a cut on my right pinkie caused by the one of the lines. I'm grateful that all I have to face is 2 days of painful rest.
Consider that a real WHEW moment.
I want to thank some of the local pilots whose names escape me at the moment for their help in folding my wing and gathering the reserves, driving my car to the hospital, then giving me a ride home.
What I've learned from this is simple . . . . I should take all the money I have and play in as many lotteries as possible in as many countries that have them.
Being the luckbox that I am, there's no doubt I will win every one.
- Urban dictionary
The weather was gorgeous today so I got to Murren early to start training before Paranoia Acrobatixx starts in a week. I was really motivated to get a lot of flights so I hustled from the beginning to do 2 flights an hour. (Usually, you'll get a flight an hour as the gondola runs at :25 after the hour, then 30 min. later at :55.) Since the flight lasts about 3 - 4 minutes (like a tow), it's possible to do this.
After practicing some real basic stuff like asym sprials and dynamic full stalls, I decided to practice the run I'd do at Paranoia: tumble, helico - helico, helico - SAT. At this comp, we won't get much height - maybe 500 meters? - so we'll only have room for 3 tricks.
On my fifth flight, I go for a high tumble. Because my entry was either too slow or I didn't pull enough, the wing went limp after the second turn, causing the left side to collapse into the lines causing a line over/bowtie. Having seen this before over the lake, I knew it wasn't correctable so I decided to throw my reserve before things got ugly. The reserve opened just fine as I began to pull the wing in. Although I landed hard, thanks to the PLF, I landed perfectly, dissipating the energy across my body, in one of the grass fields without a scratch. I folded up my wing, stuffed the reserve in the harness, and walked back to my car. Because I was trying out my friend's harness, I simply put his in the car, grabbed my own harness and was on the next gondola 30 minutes later. For me, it's important to get right back "on the horse" so I don't experience "paralysis by analysis". It happened, I learned from it, so move on . . . .
Skip forward 2 flights.
The flight after the reserve toss was pretty eventful, so on the next one, I was gonna try my routine again, sans the tumble. So, it was just gonna be the helico - helico (twister)and helico - SAT. Although I just started nailing the twister earlier in the week, I wanted to get it cleaner and also incorporate it into an actual run.
I start my run around 700 meters or so. The left helico was perfect - going fast, no oscillations, and completely open. I slowed the right side down after 6 - 7 rotations, and held the wing in parachutal, preparing it to go the other way. However, I did this for too long which will make the wing want to re-start VERY hard. (On an acro glider, if you aren't ready for it, this can be very bad.)
Because I gave the wing too much "re-start power", the left side spun super-fast when I let it fly - so much so that my body couldn't follow thereby causing - in 2 seconds! - 2 riser twists. Now this isn't so bad as I'd simply take my hands out of the toggles and get control of the glider using the rear risers (the PG adage "steer then clear" is good to remember) before the wing starts to wind up in a deep spiral dive. But as soon as I started to do this, the wing suddenly shot out in front of me (in a 2nd re-start?) causing a severe collapse on the left wing tip - or should I say the ENTIRE left side! - so severe that as my falling body passed by the wing, I got caught in the lines.
"Oh Shit!" (OS!) #1: I'm now partially covered in lines, leaned entirely on the left side, and starting to spin uncontrollably. (I don't think I was spiraling because the wing was on top of me the whole time - it started spinning to the left faster and faster.)
OS! moment #2: I go for my right reserve but realize that there are lines covering it. Somehow I get the reserve out of the container but it doesn't fully come out. My guess is because of the lines. I never saw it deploy.
OS! moment #3: Not seeing any good results from OS moment #2, I go for my 2nd reserve which is now underneath me. Because that side isn't covered in lines, I'm able to pull the reserve and it comes out of the container, but it doesn't deploy right away! Somehow, even though I'm spinning uncontrollably, I look up and the see the d-bag with my last reserve floating above me. As any reasonable person would do after having experienced 3 consecutive OS moments, I tugged the F*CK out of the lines to get the reserve out and - VOILA! - it began to open up.
WHEW moment #1: The reserve starts to inflate and I'm elated . . . . but this lasts for 2 seconds.
OS! moment #4: Because I'm spinning so fast and didn't have enough time to pull the wing in, it starts wrapping around the reserve which is just starting to inflate.
OS! moment #5: My last reserve can't inflate. Realizing this, I do my best to somehow unwrap the reserve from the wing. While obviously a desperate measure, I needed to do something.
OS! moment #6: Desperate measure doesn't work. I'm now spinning to the ground with only the hope that whatever part of the wing and whatever part of the reserve that are opened will somehow slow my descent.
OS! moment #7: I'm somehow able to make out that I'll be falling close to a house and hoping that the valley wind will somehow push me away from it.
After seven (7) OS! moments, I hit the ground, unsure of whether or not I PLF'ed, thankful that I missed the house . . . . by 3 meters. As I write this, I have no idea how I landed. All I know is that I landed "perfectly", as you'll soon read.
From all this, after having been checked out by a doctor for any back or spinal injury, I walk away with only a concussion, a bruised left eye, some sore back muscles, and a cut on my right pinkie caused by the one of the lines. I'm grateful that all I have to face is 2 days of painful rest.
Consider that a real WHEW moment.
I want to thank some of the local pilots whose names escape me at the moment for their help in folding my wing and gathering the reserves, driving my car to the hospital, then giving me a ride home.
What I've learned from this is simple . . . . I should take all the money I have and play in as many lotteries as possible in as many countries that have them.
Being the luckbox that I am, there's no doubt I will win every one.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Nissan Outdoor Games
Last night they premiered all the teams' movies and photographs to an audience of around 1500 in Interlaken.
4 movies were shown and I must say, most of them were professionally done and very impressive. I was on Team IBEX and although our film,"The Red Helmet", didn't have the most amazing action sequences for some of the individual sports - paragliding was quite short! - I feel our movie was BY FAR the best . . . . and most emotional as you'll see.
It's been an awesome 5 days and I feel very privileged and proud to have been a part of it. There was a lot of hard work, frustration, respect, elation, fun, and tragedy felt by everyone and I hope that I'll get the chance to do it again in future.
I'll post some pics as well.
Note: When you go to the site and pick "videos", a player will automatically come on your screen and start showing the different teams' films. You'll know which one you're watching by looking on the bottom left.
Please enjoy them!
4 movies were shown and I must say, most of them were professionally done and very impressive. I was on Team IBEX and although our film,"The Red Helmet", didn't have the most amazing action sequences for some of the individual sports - paragliding was quite short! - I feel our movie was BY FAR the best . . . . and most emotional as you'll see.
It's been an awesome 5 days and I feel very privileged and proud to have been a part of it. There was a lot of hard work, frustration, respect, elation, fun, and tragedy felt by everyone and I hope that I'll get the chance to do it again in future.
I'll post some pics as well.
Note: When you go to the site and pick "videos", a player will automatically come on your screen and start showing the different teams' films. You'll know which one you're watching by looking on the bottom left.
Please enjoy them!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Interlaken, CH
Hey all -
Ayumi told me that some of the guys are complaining that I haven't updated my blog, so . . . . sorry!
I've been in Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen valley since Saturday and have been very busy every day shooting and helping the athletes on my team with their shoots for the Nissan Outdoor Games. It's pretty awesome working with such high-level athletes who are absolutely sick in their respective sports. It's not until the end of the night that we get to see the day's footage of a teammate. What's hilarious is that we all say, "Man, that's just crazy . . . . I'd never do something that scary" when some of us wingsuit 50 ft by rocks or climb 10 pitches in a day or tumble over glider 20 times. We all get excited seeing what others do.
The peer respect is amazing.
My paragliding partner is Gabor Kezi from www.justacro.com and today we took some footage of him doing the infinity, while Loren did the camera work on a tandem. Tomorrow they will take footage of me doing some stuff so hopefully I won't f*ck it up! : )
Re Vertigo, I found out from Gabor that I totally could've competed despite the fact that the organizers sent me an email saying the contrary. He had some friends who got the same email and were pissed that they didn't go. All the BS about "we're only taking the top 30" is just that . . . . f*cking BS. This is the biggest comp of the year and they couldn't even get the top guys to show up. Now I know to never believe the hype and just show up. F*cking pisses me off, man, 'cause I was in Chamonix and I EASILY could've gone.
ANYWAYS, I have a ranking now! It's WAY down there (#91), but hey . . . . I'm in the system! It can only get better from here, right?
Hope my boys back at Mussel Rock are having fun without me. I hear that Arnel will be helping Ayumi on the radio . . . . WTF??????
Ayumi told me that some of the guys are complaining that I haven't updated my blog, so . . . . sorry!
I've been in Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen valley since Saturday and have been very busy every day shooting and helping the athletes on my team with their shoots for the Nissan Outdoor Games. It's pretty awesome working with such high-level athletes who are absolutely sick in their respective sports. It's not until the end of the night that we get to see the day's footage of a teammate. What's hilarious is that we all say, "Man, that's just crazy . . . . I'd never do something that scary" when some of us wingsuit 50 ft by rocks or climb 10 pitches in a day or tumble over glider 20 times. We all get excited seeing what others do.
The peer respect is amazing.
My paragliding partner is Gabor Kezi from www.justacro.com and today we took some footage of him doing the infinity, while Loren did the camera work on a tandem. Tomorrow they will take footage of me doing some stuff so hopefully I won't f*ck it up! : )
Re Vertigo, I found out from Gabor that I totally could've competed despite the fact that the organizers sent me an email saying the contrary. He had some friends who got the same email and were pissed that they didn't go. All the BS about "we're only taking the top 30" is just that . . . . f*cking BS. This is the biggest comp of the year and they couldn't even get the top guys to show up. Now I know to never believe the hype and just show up. F*cking pisses me off, man, 'cause I was in Chamonix and I EASILY could've gone.
ANYWAYS, I have a ranking now! It's WAY down there (#91), but hey . . . . I'm in the system! It can only get better from here, right?
Hope my boys back at Mussel Rock are having fun without me. I hear that Arnel will be helping Ayumi on the radio . . . . WTF??????
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